The Girl in the Elevator (ONC 2022)

9. Elevator of Aliens

"Can you put me down? Please?" Sam tried to keep calm, but he couldn't stop the tears from gathering in his eyes. Part of it was sheer terror, but the larger part was due to the fact of how Goldspun Silk carried him.

She'd thrown him over a slender, surprisingly bony shoulder, and carted him about as if he were a sack of potatoes. It wreaked havoc on his bandaged wound, and if the skin wasn't pulling, then it was roughly bumped about. If she was going to cart him around, couldn't she have carried him more gently, like in her arms?

She didn't answer him. Neither did her partner in crime.

They were in a darkened hallway now, moving down it at frightening speeds. The women didn't run, but they speed-walked at a relentless pace that anyone who wasn't an Olympic athlete would be hard pressed to match. Their boots hit the ground sternly, harshly, a steady drum of beats that matched the racing of his heart. 

"Where are you taking me?"

Again, he got no answer. He wriggled, trying to move, maybe even escape, but Goldspun Silk had her arm clamped tightly against his thighs. Her strength was unbelievable, because he couldn't budge even a centimeter.

Struggling exhausted him. It also made his wound hurt even more. He went limp, grunting softly. Like this, all the blood had rushed to his head and his arms were left dangling down her back. It was extremely uncomfortable.

"Where's Doctor Jenny?"

The only sound was the rhythmic beat of the ladies' footsteps. 

It was clear that they weren't in the mood to chat. Sam craned his head, trying to see where they were going. The lights were off, so he couldn't see much other than the bare walls and the occasional doorway. The decorator obviously hadn't visited the place. For a spa, that was somewhat disappointing. Unless they put all the effort into making the rooms look like spaceship laboratories, and then were too tired to finish the hallways...

Sam thought that made sense. Although he was a little uncertain about these nurses. Was punching out a door and kidnapping him part of the treatment? Was it kind of a shock therapy?

He wanted to believe so, but something in his gut told him he should be frightened. Which he was.

When they turned a corner, he saw an orange glow up ahead. It belonged to a set of lights over an-

Sam gasped.

An elevator! It was at the end of the hall and the two women were headed straight for it.

He grabbed at Goldspun Silk's lab coat, and tugged to get her attention. "We're not going to the elevator, are we?"

He waited for an answer, during which she took three long strides closer to the object of his nightmares.

"We can't go in there." He tugged harder, and the effort to do so while upside down had him wheezing liking a dying man.

For the first time since they'd abducted him from the glass room, Black Bob swiveled her head to look at him. She'd been walking slightly ahead of Goldspun Silk, so she was looking back over her shoulder at him. Meanwhile, she continued her forward march without wavering from her path, as if she didn't even need to look where she was going. 

"Why not?" She asked, her voice as cold and toneless as steel. There wasn't a hint of humanity in there and it made Sam's flesh prickle.

He swallowed nervously. "Because that's where the last one exploded."

Black Bob stared unblinkingly at him. Then her lips abruptly stretched wide into a shapeless crevasse. He saw a glimpse of perfect white teeth and the black cavern of her mouth.